A frontline city, Karlivka is located an a bit more than an hour west of Kharkiv. Pastor Ihor writes about how life and ministry have been changed by the war
October 3, 2026
Before the war, our church was a small local community. We lived the normal life of a church: Sunday services, preaching God’s Word, communion. Of course, there were difficulties and problems, but in general, we thought more about the development of the ministry than about how to keep the church running – it was running! church. At that time, we could not even have imagined how much our lives would change after the start of a full-scale war.
How did the war affect your community? The war has changed our community a lot. Some people have left: moving to other cities or abroad. Many families have loved ones who serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Some of them have lost loved ones. The war has brought a lot of fear and uncertainty. Still, we have seen that in difficult times, people begin to need the church more. They need the church not only for Sunday worship, but for prayer, support, help, conversation, and community.
The war showed us how fragile our ordinary life is. What used to seem guaranteed has ceased to be guaranteed. There are people who, because of the war, have begun to think more seriously about God, death, eternity, and the meaning of life. These themes that they didn’t want to mention before have now taken on a personal importance. But there are also people who, on the contrary, have closed themselves off. Especially where there is loss, intense fear, or disappointment. Some people ask: “If there is a God, why does He allow it?” You need to listen to a person, be there, and show him Christ. I would say that the war has made people not so much more open as more serious. For many, questions of faith are no longer just theoretical.
The war is exhausting. I worry about our spiritual state under such daily strain. A person can physically stay in church, but inside they gradually lose strength, hope and the desire to serve. None of us know how long this war will last and what the consequences are for our families and children. This question of ‘how much longer’, worries not only me, but many people. We worry for the security and safety of our families and for what our children’s futures will look like and what their understanding of life and God will be after all of this. In many ways, the war has shown that we are just learning to trust God. We don’t understand everything, but we do understand that we have no other solid foundation.
When I look back, I see God’s faithfulness over the last five years in very simple things. The Lord has preserved our church. We have stayed together as much as possible as a community even during the conditions of war. The church continues to serve, preach the Gospel and pray. We have also received help many times when it was especially needed. Brothers from our denomination and from abroad supported us financially, prayerfully, and continue to be interested in our affairs. Sometimes, God brought help at just that moment when we no longer really understood where to get funds for the next step.
I especially see God’s faithfulness in the construction of our church building. To be honest, there were moments when, from a human point of view, it seemed that we would not be able to bring this matter to the end. But gradually, the Lord opened opportunities for us. MTW has played an important role in this project and we have already accomplished a lot: we have installed heating, water, completed the preparation and decoration of the walls, laid the floor, paid off the builders, and we continue to move on. Each step reminds me that God does not abandon His church. Some may wonder why we even continue to build the church when we live in a country where a rocket can realistically destroy what you have been building for years. And if we were trying to build a monument that would stand for tens or hundreds of years, we probably would have abandoned the project long ago. We continue to build because that is the call and the opportunity that God has given us today. Our church needs a place where we can meet; where we can preach the Gospel, teach children, pray, communicate and serve people. We are not only building walls.
The biggest problem facing the church is if to go into problem solving mode – to focus on all the problems, the war, the finances, the construction, the needs of the congregation and community, the security issues, relational family problems, employment problems etc. But we are called to remain in Christ and to remain a church. We must not forget why the church exists. We need to continue to preach God’s Word, pray, make disciples, and lead people to Christ. It seems to me that a long war can be even more dangerous for spiritual life than a short crisis. A person just gets tired. And the church can get tired too.
Pray for the church in Karlivka to be encouraged in Christ and to not grow weary of doing good.
